Important short notes of plant breeding

The importance of plant breeding in agriculture

 It helps to develop crops which are resistant to pests, drought and pathogens
 To produce high yielding varieties
 It plays vital role in global food security
 Addressing food supply for a growing world population
 Addressing world food and feed quality needs
 To feed the global people and planet
 To promote, encourage and protect innovation
 To transfer technology
 To provide healthy and affordable products easily for the society and to satisfy the need
of the society and industry
 To change the living standard of the farmer and to boost the economy of the country

Methods/techniques used for crop improvement

1. Plant introduction
 The introduction of the plants from places outside the county may be of same or another
continent.
 It can be defined as the “process of introducing plants from their growing locality to a
new locality.
 It is the easiest or most common method of crop improvement
 Acclimatization follows the introduction and both processes go side by side
2. Selection
 Selection is one of the oldest plant breeding methods, where individual plants or groups
of plants are picked out from the mixed population based on morphological features.
 Plants, both domesticated as well as introduced, show considerable degrees of variations
with respect to different characters.
 Some of these plants are superior whereas the others are inferior in performance.

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  The process of selection of superior plants is an important method for the improvement
of cultivated plants, which lead to the development of new varieties with more
advantageous and superior characters.
 To perform selection, two criteria must be fulfilled:
 There must be genetic variability/diversity
 The trait/character must be heritable
 The selection of desirable clones from the mixed population of the vegetatively propagated
crop is called clonal selection
3. Hybridization
 Domestication, introduction, acclimatization and selection of plants help to locate the
most promising cultivars from the available diversity.
 But superior and economically important characters are scattered/present in different
cultivars.
 Hybridization is the technique of bringing superior characters into a single variety by
way of cross-pollinating them artificially
 It is the mating or crossing of two plants or lines of dissimilar genotype.

Types of hybridization
 Intervarietal Hybridization:
 The parents involved in hybridization belong to the same species
 It is also known as intraspecific hybridization.
 Example hybridization between two Triticum aestivum or two Oryza sativa variety
 Distant Hybridization
 Interspecific hybridization
The hybridization between two species of the same genus/different species
Oryza sativa x Oryza perennis = CO 31 rice
 Intergeneric hybridization
The hybridization between when two different genera/genus
Example
Triticum durum. x Secale cereale = Triticale
Tomato x potato = Pomato etc.
Triticale is the first cereal hybrid created by humans or sometimes called man
made cereal
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4. Mutation breeding
 Is the process of exposing seeds to chemicals, radiation, or enzymes in order to generate
mutants with desirable traits to be bred with other cultivars.
 Mutation breeding is the utilization of induced mutation in crop improvement.
 Mutation is a sudden heritable change in a characteristic of an organism
 Mutagenesis is the process of enhance mutation using mutagenic agents
 Mutation breeding is the quickest method of plant breeding
 The organism which undergoes mutation is called a mutant
 Mutations that occur naturally are called spontaneous mutations and
artificially/chemically is called induced mutation
 Induced mutations are induced by two agents/mutagens
Physical mutagens
 Physical mutagens are radiations that cause mutations, including X-rays, alpha,
beta and gamma rays, temperature and UV rays.
Chemical mutagens
 Chemical substances which induce mutations are called chemical mutagens
Example
 Mustard gas, nitrous acid, ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS), sodium azide.
 Varieties developed by mutation breeding are maize, chick pea, pea, jute, wheat, rice
(saline tolerant and pest resistant), sugarcane, barley etc.
5. Polyploidy breeding
 Polyploidy is the presence of more than two set of chromosomes in an organism
 Polyploidy breeding is process of doubling the chromosomes in hybrid plants.
 Polyploidy plays crucial role in gigantism (large in size) of crops
 The most common chemical for artificial induction of polyploidy or doubling the
chromosome number is colchicine
 Polyploidy is artificially induced by:
Physical agents - heat, cold treatment and X-rays.
Chemical agents - colchicine.
 Varieties developed by polyploidy breeding triticale (wheat), tobacco, cotton

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 The choice of breeding methods mainly depends on the mode of pollination, mode of
reproduction, gene action and breeding objective of crop species.

Classification of Plant Breeding Methods/crop improvement

Basis of classification and Types of methods

A. Application in crop improvement
(1) General Methods
(2) Special Methods
(3) Population Improvement
B. Hybridization
(1) Methods involving hybridization
(2) Methods not involving hybridization
NB: SSD = single seed descent
Breeding methods included
Plant introduction, Pure line selection, mass selection,
progeny selection, pedigree method, bulk method, back
cross method, SSD, clonal selection, heterosis breeding,
synthetics and composites
Mutation breeding, Polyploidy breeding, transgenic
breeding, molecular breeding.
Recurrent selection, disruptive selection, diallelel selective
mating, and biparental mating
Pedigree, bulk, backcross and SSD Methods, heterosis
breeding, and population improvement approaches and
molecular breeding (marker aided selection).
Plant Introduction, pureline selection, mass selection,
progeny selection, clonal selection, mutation breeding and
transgenic breeding

 Self-pollinated species are homozygous; hence we can start hybridization directly.

 Cross-pollinated species, on the other hand, are highly heterozygous. Hence we cannot
start hybridization directly. First we have to develop inbred lines by selfing or inbreeding
and then only hybridization can be taken up.

Breeding methods for self-pollinating/autogamous species

 Plant Introduction  Bulk method  Mutation breeding

 Pureline selection  Single seed descent method  Polyploidy breeding
 Mass selection  Backcross method  Distant hybridization
 Pedigree method  Heterosis breeding  Transgenic breeding

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Breeding methods for cross-pollinated /allogamous species

 Plant Introduction  Synthetic breeding  Transgenic breeding

 Mass and progeny selection  Composite breeding
 Backcross method  Polyploidy breeding
 Heterosis breeding  Distant hybridization
Breeding methods for Asexually Propagated Species/ vegetative propagating crop

 Plant introduction  Mutation breeding

 Mass selection  Polyploidy breeding
 Clonal selection  Distant hybridization
 Heterosis breeding  Transgenic breeding
♠ Plant introduction is applicable to all three groups of crop plants, viz., self-pollinated,
cross pollinated and asexually propagated species
♠ Pureline selection is applicable to only self-pollinated species.
♠ Mass selection is common in cross pollinated species and rare in self-pollinated and
asexually propagates species.
♠ Mass selection: a selection based on physical appearance (phenotype)
♠ Progeny selection is used in cross pollinated species
♠ Pedigree method is applicable to both self and cross pollinated species.
 Pedigree method for transfer of polygenic characters.
♠ Backcross method is applicable in all three groups of crop species.
 Backcross method is used for transfer of oligogenic characters from a donor
source to a well-adapted variety.
Multiline varieties are developed in self-pollinated species.
 They are mixture of several isogenic lines, closely related lines.
Clonal selection is used in asexually propagated species
Heterosis breeding is used in all the three groups
 However, it is common in cross-pollinated and asexually propagated species and
rare in self-pollinated species.
Mutation breeding is common in self-pollinated and asexually propagated species and
rare in cross pollinated species.
Polyploidy breeding is common in asexually propagated species and rare in self and
cross pollinated species

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 Distant hybridization is used in all the three types of crop species
Transgenic breeding is applicable to all three types of crop species
 It is a genetic improvements of plants through the use of biotechnology (tissue culture
and genetic engineering)
 This method is used to solve specific problems which cannot be solved by
conventional breeding techniques.
Recurrent selection is common in cross pollinated species and rare in other two groups

Hybrid seed production

♣ Four requirements for the successful production and use of hybrid seed
♪ Heterosis is exhibited by the F1 progeny of crosses
♪ Fertile pollen can be eliminated from the female parent
(emasculation/detasseling)
♪ Pollen from the male parent is effectively transported to the female parent(cross
pollination)
♪ Hybrid seed can be produced reliably and economically

General Steps of artificial hybridization

♠ Set up your objective

♠ Choice of parents (Female and Male Parents)
♠ Evaluation of parents
♠ Emasculation
♠ Bagging
♠ Tagging
♠ Crossing pollination
♠ Harvesting of hybrid seed

Open-pollinated varieties (OPVs)

♠ OPV is a variety developed by free pollination or the flowers are fertilized by bees,
moths, birds, winds and rain.

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Maintenance of open pollinated varieties

♠ adequate rouging,
♠ avoidance of volunteers plants
♠ using approved source of seed for planting
♠ isolation distance etc

Questions

1. All of the following are the importance of plant breeding except.

A. Change the living standard of the farmers
B. Plays a vital role in global food security
C. Increased the productivity and quality of plants used for food , feed and fiber
D. None
2. A plant breeder needs to improve the maize production through selection. The criteria he has
used for the improvement program was the physical appearances of the crop (phenotype)
of the crop. Therefore, which types of selection method is the most appropriate?
A. Bulk method
B. Mass selection
C. Pedigree selection
D. Backcross selection
3. In artificial hybridization activities, one and the basic step of hybridization are bagging. Why
bagging is done?
A. To avoid self-pollination
B. To enhance fertilization
C. To prevent contamination from foreign pollen
D. None

GOOD LUCK!!!

May God/Allah be With You All!!!

I hope you all will answer a questions related with plant breeding in full confidence!